StrangeSox

Eh the Syrian conflict is a huge pot of issues. Some of it's religious sectional violence and certainly the Isis aspect is, but some of it's ethnic and some of it's just sick of being under a brutal dictator for decades.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Sep 19, 2016 -> 03:09 PM) Well blame their predecessors too man. I'm not trying to dismiss what you're saying, but U.S. presidents have been f***ing with the middle east since the creation of Israel. Trump or Clinton will continue that beat as well. We can go back to at least partially blaming the British and French post-WWI when the Ottoman Empire collapsed. The Sykes-Picot agreement has left us with a pretty strong legacy of s***. http://www.thetower.org/article/the-map-th...he-middle-east/

Yes that's the republicantalkingpoints.txt, but I'm not convinced that what you're saying there/what Chaffetz is claiming is actually irrefutable proof. If she is disqualified from being President because of email sever management issues, are you happy/comfortable with a President Trump? Because however much we may not like the current system as it is or who the candidates presented to us are, that's where we are today and the reality we have to work with. Either Clinton or Trump will be President, and I am much, much more comfortable with Clinton than with Trump even if every crazy conspiracy about her turned out to actually be true. Part of that is policy, of course, but perhaps an even more important part this election is just how uniquely unqualified and unprepared for office Trump is.

QUOTE (DrunkBomber @ Sep 19, 2016 -> 03:44 PM) Im very anti intervention in a lot of this stuff but as Ive admitted before I dont really have an answer to it. I think Bush/Obama have destabilized the middle east to the point that it may be next to impossible to fix. I do think the fact that just yesterday we accidentally bombed Syrian Army who is fighting against Isis and killed 80 of them is simply a mistake that we cant afford at this point. But that's part of the complicated s***storm--we don't actually like Assad's regime and have been actively trying to undermine it for years now. Whatever the US is doing in Syria, playing nice with Assad isn't really in the cards in the long-run. They're trying to back anti-Assad, anti-Isis forces. Russia's doing just the opposite for their own reasons, as are the Turks. When the Russians started their campaign in Syria, they were frequently bombing anti-Assad rebels rather than ISIS. Turkey's launched attacks against Kurdish groups.

No one is surprised that the Republican House Committees will not ever let anything regarding the Clintons go. We've already had 4 years of Benghazi investigations that have found no wrong-doing many times, yet the beat still marches on. Saying that Chaffetz' grandstanding is "irrefutable proof" is being extremely credulous towards his claims, to put it nicely. I do hope the Republicans lose their collective minds again, overplay their hands, impeach Hillary immediately and get slapped down hard just like the last time they pulled that stunt.

Db you've brought up the Syrian thing a couple of times, what are your thoughts on that issue? The us has been funding and supplying anti assad forces for years now, so while it does complicate things with Russia, it's not exactly a new turn.

QUOTE (DrunkBomber @ Sep 19, 2016 -> 11:17 AM) From 538 I like the NYT's "The Upshot" summary page. About half way down the page, they give a summary of how all the aggregators currently stand both nationally and for each state. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/up...s-forecast.html

QUOTE (raBBit @ Sep 19, 2016 -> 12:28 PM) Well a lot of this stuff belongs in the Democratic thread... The original intent of these partisan threads was for Democrats to post with Democrats about good Democrat/bad Republican stuff and vice-versa, not as catch-all threads to dump everything about Democrats good or bad into (and, again, vice versa). edit: original threads were even titled "For Dems Only" and "For Reps Only"

QUOTE (DrunkBomber @ Sep 19, 2016 -> 10:22 AM) Im curious where is everyone who mocks me anytime I criticize Clinton or Obama? No response to any of this stuff? It's the Republican thread. You should feel free to post all of the pro-Republican/anti-Democratic things you want.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Sep 19, 2016 -> 11:12 AM) At this point everyone might as well twerk, because if you even smile you're getting a flag tossed. I just really don't understand the point of it.

How the bombs discovered in jersey http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-suspicio...stigated-2016-9

Left with a right knee injury, couldn't put any weight on it at all

Welp probably looking for an ap replacement this week

Lol no,to both parts of that if then statement To elaborate, there is pretty much no way Trump doesn't say or do something stupid for the next six or so weeks. Just within the last few days he pulled that birther press conference stunt that seems to have royally pissed off the press, and now they're openly calling him out on his lies and actually using the word liar. More importantly, Clinton is still up solidly in all of the state polls she needs to be. PA still looks very solid democrat, and without that state Trump has only a handful of increasingly unlikely win scenarios compared to almost a thousand for Clinton. The electoral college map is just really tough even for a generic republican these days m

Rabbit what is with the random side swipes at me? I don't think I've every said anything about O'Malley ever. Besides, people didn't waive away db's post but pointed out that it was just factually incorrect. Lostfan even posted specific policy items from her most recent speech.

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Sep 16, 2016 -> 04:51 PM) Not really true. http://fortune.com/2015/03/27/us-postal-service/ That's a pretty misleading headline and story. Almost all of the $18b figure comes from an estimate on how much of a "gift" only allowing the usps to use mailboxes is worth, and when describing the reasons that the usps "loses" money there's no mention of the huge pension prefunding requirement put on them in the mid 2000's.

Clinton has pumped out policy the entire campaign and her website is full of it. She's a huge policy wonk nerd. edit: yeah what lost said, get outta here with that "Clinton doesn't talk policy" nonsense.

Yeah with the NFL it's just commercialized patriotism

At least journalists seem willing to use "the word that shall not be uttered!" and are straight-up calling Trump a liar over this. He's trying to gaslight the whole country on his history with birtherism.

QUOTE (Ezio Auditore @ Sep 16, 2016 -> 11:31 AM) He WAS. He, and the Freedom Riders, had really low approval ratings while he was alive. Most white people hated him. Especially after he started criticizing the Vietnam War more vocally. When he came to Chicago in '66 he was pelted with bricks for demanding fair housing laws.

Saying "oops guess I was wrong about the whole birther thing but actually I'll take credit for bringing the whole issue to a close" in 2016 isn't a "flip flop." Treating every time someone changes their mind on something over any period of time and no matter how ridiculous the original position was as a "flip flop" is the sort of nonsense that enables garbage like Trump to become nominees and office holders.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Sep 15, 2016 -> 02:38 PM) You quoted my post with a quote that I couldn't find. It's fair for me to ask. Not sure why the snark is needed. Ah gotcha, thought you were asking where my paraphrasing of ss2k5 was coming from since it was in quotes, definitely can see how it wasn't clear that my paraphrase was of ss2k5 and not of you since I quoted your post!The actual quoted post of yours was just straight out of the first line of this one, still here.

It was a paraphrasing, I'll be sure to do full APA citation next time. eta and paraphrasing to basically agree with both ss2k5 and rabbit

QUOTE (raBBit @ Sep 15, 2016 -> 11:27 AM) HRC is without a doubt a hawk which is scary. "literally every failed/failing nation-state and conflict in the world" is a bit hyperbolic but absolutely she's a hawk.

QUOTE (bmags @ Sep 15, 2016 -> 10:46 AM) people are going to love that well actually from me. "where do mansplainers get their water? a well, actually"